Advertisements, also referred to as commercials, are played in between subject portions of a television or radio program, and are the primary source of revenue for television and radio networks. Typically ten to ninety seconds in length, advertisements are grouped together as pre-selected breaks in the broadcast of a program, typically occurring from every few to every fifteen minutes of programming. The number of advertisements and the timing between the placement of the advertisements is dependent on the type of program (e.g., sporting event, sitcom, news program, or movie) and the format of the program (e.g., live or pre-recorded). Television and radio programming, for example, typically include approximately sixteen minutes of advertisements during every hour of programming. Many advertisers use this time as their primary avenue for promoting products, services, and events to consumers.
Advertising rates are generally based on the time slot, popularity of a program, and length of the advertisement. A higher rate is charged for a program with a large audience, due to the theory that more viewers, or listeners, will result in more potential customers receiving the advertisement, which is likely to result in more revenue generated for an advertiser. During the Super Bowl™, for example, a thirty second time spot may cost in the millions of dollars.
Advertisements are not limited to radio and television. In the age of computers, some form of advertisement is displayed on virtually every web-page. Conventional Internet advertising may also be in the form of “pop-up” windows, which are programmed to “pop-up” in their own separate window when a certain web-site is triggered, or opened. Many Internet service providers and search-engine companies are able to offer free services to consumers because of the large amounts of advertising dollars that they receive from advertisers. Like television and radio, the more popular a particular web-site is, the more that it is accessed by consumers, and the more the owner may charge for advertising space.
Advertising is generally more effective when products and services reach consumers that have an interest in the particular product or service. This is referred to as “targeted advertising,” in which an advertiser identifies a group of people as being those that are likely to purchase what is being advertised, and providing the most favorable situation in which the advertisement will reach that pre-determined group of consumers. As an example, it is generally known that a lot of men like sports. It is also generally known that a lot of men drink beer. Therefore, it makes economic sense for an advertiser to run a beer advertisement during sporting events, when it is more likely that men will be watching television. As stated above, advertisement time during the Super Bowl™ is very expensive, and although very expensive, it is common to see a large number of beer commercials during the Super Bowl™. This is normally because advertisers feel that the large premiums paid for time slots during the game will be made-up for by the amount of revenue that the commercial will generate for the company through beer sales.
In determining whether a program, or web-page, may be appropriate for a particular advertisement, advertisers typically consider whether the program attracts large numbers of viewers who are of the same age group, gender, income bracket, and who have similar interests and hobbies with those who are most likely to purchase the product being advertised. Selecting an advertisement and advertising slot in this manner, increases the likelihood that viewers who watch the advertisement will be interested viewers.
Broadcasting networks and advertisers are able to gauge which demographic groups are watching which programs using conventional market research tools. For example, the AC Nielsen™ ratings system tracks television viewing activities by sampling a plurality of households, and estimating the number of viewers of particular programs using the viewing activity data. Advertisers also use market research companies which conduct focus groups that study the effectiveness of different types of television advertisements. These market research tools assist advertisers in creating advertisements, and selecting appropriate time slots in which to run them. To help ensure that viewers watch a particular advertisement, advertisers use techniques that help to grab a viewers attention, such as visual stimulus, catchy slogans, and jingles.
To gauge the effectiveness of their spending, advertisers have long sought information related to potential consumer viewing patterns. There are several conventional devices and techniques that exist for gathering such information. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,258,386 issued to Cheung discloses “an apparatus for television audience analysis comprising means for monitoring a television receiver, means responsive to a monitored signal for storing information representative of channel identification and of the time at which a channel is selected and at which the selection of a channel is terminated, and means for reading the stored information periodically.”
As another example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,556,030 issued to Nickerson, et al., discloses “a data storage and transmission system for accumulating and transmitting data from a plurality of remote T.V. panelist locations to a central location. Each remote unit includes a microprocessor, a control memory, and a data store memory. The control memory stores control information for the remote unit, which may include dynamic allocation information. The data store memory is event driven and stores data as to television channel selection and times thereof, and can store viewer reaction data and the like. At a pre-selected time, each remote unit initiates a telephone call to a central location and identifies itself. Upon successful telephone connection between a remote unit and the central location, any data such as viewer habit and/or reaction data and the like contained in the data store memory is transmitted over the telephone line to the central location.”
Other conventional systems and methods provide somewhat more use data than only channel numbers viewed and the time of viewing, such as which products panelists purchase. U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,904 issued to McKenna, et al., discloses “a data gathering system including a plurality of remote units which are controlled from a central location. Each of the remote units are attached to a television receiver which is generally, but not necessarily, attached to a cable system. Each of the remote units may function to determine which of several TV modes is in use as well as to store TV channel selector data, data from an optical input device, and/or data input by viewers representative of the composition of the viewing audience. The data is stored for either later collection by a portable data collector, or for direct transmission via telephone to the central location. A video message for a TV viewer, such as a survey, may be transmitted from the central location and stored at the remote units, for later display on the TV receiver associated with the remote units. The substitution of alternate programming information may also be achieved by the central control point on selected of the remote units.”
Conventionally, panelist monitoring may be used to gauge the effectiveness of advertising on a selected group of panelists. Nevertheless, while panelist monitoring systems like those described above provide somewhat more monitoring data than just TV tuning data, they do so only for limited groups. For example, when more data is gathered (like purchase information), it is done only for the panelist groups, rather than for subscribers of the entire system.
Conventional systems typically capture ratings information that identifies which television shows are viewed, rather than whether the subscriber also viewed the commercials displayed during those shows. What is important to an advertiser is that potential consumers are interested in an advertisement enough to sit through its duration. There is a great deal of money invested in advertising, with the hopes that it will return even greater profits.
Conventional advertising management systems comprise what is generally referred to as a “locked” advertisement delivery system. In this conventional system, time slots are pre-purchased by advertisers. The rates for these time slots are based upon the demand for the particular time slot, as described above. When time slots are purchased, they are grouped together and run as a commercial break during a program, also as described above. When a time slot is purchased, it is no longer available to a second advertiser that may be interested in purchasing the same time slot, but who did not purchase it first. Conventional advertising management systems are basically first-come-first-serve. There may be bidding for a particular slot, but once a rate is agreed to by the advertising slot provider, that time slot is set.
Conventional advertising methods include several drawbacks, such as excluding potential consumers, and including viewers that have no desire to purchase the product or service. Advertisers must continuously evaluate advertising mediums and time slots. When selecting time slots, advertisers take into account which times of the day they are most likely to find large volumes of viewers, whether or not those viewers are of a desired demographic, and which programs are most appropriate to place advertisements into.
What is needed are novel systems and methods that result in more effectively spent advertising dollars for advertisers, which results in increased profit margins for the advertisers and also for network media providers. What is needed are novel systems and methods which result in flexibility and options for advertisers in selecting advertising time slots.